Wow. Where do I even begin?

First of all, have you ever been to school? If you don't fit in, the entire experience can be hell on a kid. I was bullied all the time, and it helped turn me into a very angry and vindictive person, for a long time. Point being kids are vicious, and good at creating new ways to make each other suffer, for fun and social status.

Now, you want to tell me that you don' think there is ANY room between acceptable social behavior and inciting a damn riot?? Do you know how ridiculous you sound? Do you have any idea how many ways there are to torment someone that have nothing to do with physical assault?

I do not know the language of this law, but it HAS just legitimized anti-gay bigotry, and religious bullying... most abhorrently, even on the part of the staff! Now there is truly no one for these kids to turn to for help. In my own case, it did get so bad that I was not ashamed to ask school authorities for help, and they were able to give me some protection. The very idea that my tormentors could claim a defense based on a hateful and primitive religious doctrine turns my stomach even today!

Of course room must be left for "social conflict." This allowance has absolutely nothing to do with systematic abuse, which (you apparently may be surprised to learn) is the very definition of bullying. Adults are (largely) mature enough not to need these protections... not because they are immune from bullying, but because adults are typically content to ostracize someone rather than actively make sport of rendering them miserable. Our children, on the other hand, often very much love the thrill of torture, and exist in a social bubble that allows and sometimes even condones this behavior. If we need legal protection to pop that bubble with a reality check, and make these kids realize the deep, life altering consequences their "fun" can wreak? So be it.

About the CNN coverage... I've seen a lot of crazy shit in my day. I'm skeptical of a lot of things, but that includes the blanket assumption that there is no such thing as psychic phenomena of any sort. I have personally experienced events that I have a hard time chalking up to coincidence or any commonly understood process - many people have. I expect someday we will learn that science just hasn't figured out all there is to know about consciousness, being, and reality just yet - shocker - and it may eventually lend some credence to these sorts of experiences.

In the mean time, is it really worth an 'idiot of the week' if people don't include the skeptical opinion in every ghost story? I mean, I think it's more or less understood! You could boil it down to a disclaimer: there is still no scientific evidence of ghosts. Holy smokes, really!? I had no idea! WHY DID NOBODY EVER TELL ME!?!? Sure, someone who needs that disclaimer to be there is an idiot. Ask yourself - are you one of those people?

In the end, it's not unheard of for people to have experiences like this, and some people find the phenomenon fascinating. At worst, it's harmless speculation, and in any case it's good entertainment! There's no need to get out of sorts simply because science does not yet fully understand the mechanism behind these experiences.

There is no such thing as justice. There is only revenge, deterrence, and rehabilitation. At present, our "justice system" guarantees only one.

Jail someone for speech? If this is supposed to be a joke, I'm afraid I don't find it very funny.

There are lots of religions out there, and nearly as many interpretations of them as there are people. To lump them all into one category with this kind of venom is bigoted at best. I do like your point about moral responsibility, even though it isn't strictly true. Adhering to a faith-based ethical system is not automatic. Faith values may simply (in unfortunate circumstances) conflict with humanitarian values.

I simply can't see religion as all bad. Though I certainly disagree very sharply with a large number of Christians I come into contact with, I do at least recognize the baby in the bathwater. There's a decent message and ethical system buried in there, it's just buried a bit too deeply for my taste. Too much static on the line. Agnostic theism can still have an important and positive role to play in our times - I think it just needs a bit of an update.

Really? You REALLY can't find it in the Bible? Let me help you out.

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

Talk about LAZY... or shall we chalk this one up to willful ignorance?

Also, you seem to have missed the sarcasm. There was sarcasm there. Now you know. Thank me later.

I agree with this, but you can have imaginary friends and even believe in them without making ridiculous claims. You don't need proof to believe something if you recognize that you might be wrong, for instance - call it "having a hunch." You don't need tons of troublesome doctrine to have faith; that's just the conceit of the religious. These sort of beliefs are not necessarily troublesome to anybody. They shouldn't need to be "overcome." The fact of faith itself SHOULD even be defensible with reasonable argument, even when the facts OF the faith by definition are not. It is just our extreme misfortune that people's favorite manifestations of this phenomenon require them to make self righteous nuisances of themselves at best, and heinous, hate-spewing, "all-knowing" and basically evil assholes of themselves at worst. I guess what I'm saying is, some people find a baby in this bathwater, and I see no need to throw it out. It's only the trappings that frustrate us so much.

This is a great argument - it's really too bad that it invariably just bounces off. As with anything else, the faithful begin with the belief that they are absolutely right - they just have to find the "facts" and words to express their correctness. You haven't pointed out something interesting or useful to them; you have simply "played with words" to hurt their feelings. A good argument on your part becomes merely a frustrating obstacle on their way to eventually, at some later date, creating a mystically perfect way to express their absolute faith. They are mistaking the absolute faith mandated by their religion for absolute knowledge and sadly, pointing out the difference will also be lost on them.

If only there was something tangible that God was supposed to "do," so believers could figure things out some day. Hey! Maybe a catholic will volunteer to have the contents of their stomach examined just after communion, to check for the blood of Christ! If we found some, we could clone Jesus someday!! This needs to be done.

Ginx13 Troll Score: 0/10

If you're the only one getting mad, you're doing it wrong!